Silent Sunday

Posted on March 31, 2013 by Asturian Diary

Comic Relief in Ghana

Posted on February 5, 2013 by Asturian Diary

This year Comic Relief celebrates 25 years. In the run up to the main event bloggers Penny, Annie and Tanya are currently visiting Ghana in the company of Davina McCall and Jonathan Ross, visiting four different projects to see the difference Red Nose Day money has been making. Today I received a digital postcard from them, which I’m sharing with you here.

Dear Mary

Later we visit school in the Agbogbloshie slum district. Having walked through the winding and litter strewn paths of the slum, the ordered environment of the school comes as a surprise. I talk to Elizabeth who teaches a group of six year olds, in a large hall on the ground floor of the school alongside four other classes.

Elizabeth is enthusiastic about the prospect of teaching 40 children without a teaching assistant and with very limited resources. Here too we are greeted by song. ‘Did you like it?’ she asks. I give the children the thumbs up and they smile.

Love Penny

This is a digital postcard sent from TeamHonk (www.mammasaurus.co.uk;www.aresidence.co.uk; www.mummybarrow.com) during their travels with Comic Relief in Ghana celebrating #goodwork.

For the past 25 years the money raised through Red Nose Day has been changing the lives of the poorest and most disadvantaged people in the UK and Africa. Let’s Keep Up the Good Work. Find out how at rednoseday.com

For other digital postcards please do join up and check out the linky on www.teamhonk.org

Reflections on New Year’s Day

Posted on January 1, 2013 by Asturian Diary

It’s been a lovely Christmas holiday here in Asturias. The sun has shone and shone and we have climbed and climbed. Today is cooler and wet – a good day to catch up on a little writing and reflecting in front of the wood burner. As I type my body is aching from this unaccustomed barrage of consecutive climbing days. My head is aching a little too, but that’s a different story

Our friend David in mid-flight. Villa de Sub, December 23rd.

Santa Claus visited last week and scored top marks with his gift. The instructions to him had been nice and specific and easy to follow: ‘a Fireman Sam fire engine with lots of buttons and flashing lights and a nee-naw’. The house has echoed to wailing sirens ever since.

The jolly red fellow also delivered gifts from grandparents and relatives in the UK, including Jack’s first camera. He’s already building an impressive photography portfolio. Some of the photos are at rather an artistic angle and some of the close-up portraits of his parents are less than flattering, taken as they are from his viewpoint, looking up. Great for capturing double chins and nasal hairs. Luckily Mum gets veto over any publication.

The beach on Christmas Day, at a rather jaunty angle. Copyright Jack.

A cheeky self-portrait of the photographer

Now we just have to sit it out and wait for the Reyes Magos (the three Kings) who pay their visit on 6th January (the feast of the Epiphany.) Traditionally it is the Reyes who bring children their gifts in Spain and so it is that we find ourselves rather awkwardly caught between two Christmas cultures. I would have been tempted to traitorously ditch the Santa Claus tradition entirely in favour of the Reyes if it were not for their timing. Presents that arrive the day before the new school term starts can’t be played with in the Christmas holidays. And that would suck. For everybody. So Santa had to visit but so do the Reyes so that Jack isn’t the only child in the village to wake up to an empty stocking on the 6th. Because that would suck even more.

Jack delivers his letter to Prince Aliatar, the messenger to the Kings, at the school Christmas show. Note: I am not the only one confused by the surfeit of present-giving traditions, all the children were wearing Santa Claus hats!

Happy New Year everyone! May 2013 bring you all that you wish for (via whichever wish delivery system you choose to believe in )

Back to Blogging

Posted on September 18, 2012 by Asturian Diary

You know how it can be with long-distance friends. You leave it just a little too long to call or write and then it becomes increasingly difficult to pick up the phone or kick off that email. The awkwardness mounts. The stuff to catch up on avalanches. Where to begin?

More time passes.

Well, that’s kind of where I am with blogging right now.

But, as with any good friendship, I don’t want to let things slide too far. And I know that once we do re-connect the conversation will flow just as easily as ever. So this post is my opening salvo, my apologetic text message to break the ice and bring things back from the brink.

I know I’ve neglected you, Blog, but you know how it is. I’ve been really busy. Been travelling a lot over the summer, with no internet connection, and subsequently caught up in the frenzy of Jack starting school. I promise I’ll be in touch again soon and catch you up on everything. (If you still want to know me!)